有时从这片山坡刚刚日落

Sometimes from this hillside just after sunset

天边呈现一抹极苍白的

The rim of the sky takes on a tinge

绿，像一条黄瓜的肉

Of the palest green, like the flesh of a cucumber

当你小心翼翼削它的时候

When you peel it carefully.

*

∗

一次在克里特，夏日，

In Crete once, in the summer,

午夜依然很热，

When it was still hot at midnight,

我们坐在水边的酒馆

We sat in a taverna by the water

望着捕鱿鱼船摇摆在月光里，

Watching the squid boats rocking in the moonlight,

喝着松香味希腊葡萄酒，吃着混杂

Drinking retsina and eating salads

凉拌碎黄瓜、酸奶

Of cool, chopped cucumber and yogurt and a little dill.

和一点儿小茴香的沙拉。

∗

*

A hint of salt, something like starch, something

少许盐味，在舌头上有像淀粉的东西，

Like an attar of grasses or green leaves

一种草或绿叶的香精油的东西

On the tongue is the tongue

是舌头

And the cucumber

和黄瓜

Evolving toward each other.

相互朝对方演变。

∗

*

Since cucumber is a word,

既然累赘的（cumbersome）是一个词，

Cumber must have been a word,

拖累（cumber）必然也是一个词，

Lost to us now, and even then,

我们现在无从知晓了，即使那时，

For a person feeling encumbered,

对于一个觉得受拖累（encumbered）的人，

It must have felt orderly and right-minded

站在水槽边，切一条黄瓜（cucumber），

To stand at a sink and slice a cucumber.

必定已经感觉到秩序和公正。

∗

*

If you think I am going to make

假如你以为我要在这首诗里制造

A sexual joke in this poem, you are mistaken.

一个色情笑话，你就错了。

∗

*

In the old torment of the earth

在大地古老的痛苦之根里

When the fires were cooling and disposing themselves

当火冷却并把自己安置

Into granite and limestone and serpentine and shale,

在花岗岩、石灰岩、蛇纹石和泥板岩里，

It is possible to imagine that, under yellowish chemical clouds,

可以想象，淡黄色的化学云下，

The molten froth, having burned long enough,

熔融泡沫，已燃烧够久，

Was already dreaming of release,

早就梦想被释放，

And that the dream, dimly

而那个梦，模糊

But with increasingly distinctness, took the form

而逐渐清晰，以水的

Of water, and that it was then, still more dimly, that it imagined

形式，而就在此时，

The dark green skin and opal green flesh of cucumbers.

仍然更模糊，它想象的

那黄瓜的暗绿色表皮和猫眼石绿的肉。